Alfred thayer mahan born in11/27/2023 ![]() ![]() Mahan defined sea power as the ability of a nation to control movement across the sea. He was also instrumental in persuading American delegates not to sign the convention establishing the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration until a reservation was added safeguarding the traditional position of the United States against European involvement in the Americas and American involvement in Europe.Ĭoncepts of naval strategy. As a representative at the First International Conference at The Hague, he spoke against prohibiting poison gas, because he thought it inconsistent with permitting the use of the submarine torpedo. He was a member of the naval war board that provided advice on strategy during the Spanish-American War. By his own choice, he retired from the navy in 1896 to pursue his literary career. He also wrote biographies and biographical sketches, as well as several interpretative articles upon events of his time.Ī large number of his professional colleagues in the United States Navy did not recognize the importance of the task Mahan had set for himself. There followed in 1892 The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and Empire: 1793–1812 and in 1905 Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812. From his lectures came the basis for his most important work, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660–1783, which appeared in 1890. It was not his intention to do original research but rather to use the best historical works available to investigate his chosen field. His duties at the war college forced him to crystallize his thoughts on sea power and history. He probably received the assignment because he wrote “The Gulf and Inland Waters,” a competent volume appearing in 1883 as a part of a larger history of the American Civil War. Mahan was selected in 1885 to lecture on naval strategy, tactics, and history at the newly established Naval War College. There was little indication during these years of the intellectual importance he was to attain. At its conclusion, he continued his navy career and traveled widely. Mahan chose the navy for his profession and, graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1859, saw active service in the American Civil War. ![]() Mahan was born at West Point, New York, where his father was a professor of military engineering at the United States Military Academy. As a historian he studied the relations of sea power and history, and he developed a philosophy of history in which the concept of force played a major role. From his studies of naval warfare he drew principles of strategy that greatly influenced the development and employment of naval forces during the first half of the twentieth century. The Royal United Services Institute honored him with the Chesney Gold Medal for his scholarship on the British Empire, and in 1902, he was elected president of the American Historical Association.Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914) was an American naval officer who wrote extensively on naval strategy and the history of sea power. ![]() Before his retirement, he was awarded honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, and McGill. In 1906, 16 years after his first and most influential work, he retired from the Navy to spend the next eight years of his life dedicated to studying naval history, as well as modern global maritime affairs. These views were subscribed to by leading politicians of the early 20th century, including Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt. For Mahan, America was the next imperial power that should invest in its naval capabilities. His views were influenced by the naval dominance of the British Empire but he, along with other geopolitical commentators, believed the Empire was on the decline. In his 1910 book “ The Interest of America in International Conditions,” he mapped out the sequence as “industry, markets, control, navy, bases.” His belief that a growing population would inevitably lead to industrial growth and supply and demand increases, would result in the necessity for extending trade outside of one’s borders (that is, global trade) and the creation of naval bases to protect those trade routes and those moving capital assets. Mahan established a land-to-sea concept that was sequential and based upon the demands of a nation’s population.
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